Monday, April 30, 2012

If you needed additional proof that our current House "leadership" -- including John Boehner and Eric Cantor -- needs to go, I refer you to Exhibit Z:

...Politico’s Maggie Haberman is reporting that the leadership-affiliated Young Guns Network has sent out mailers asking Democrats to vote for Dick Lugar (not exactly a young gun) in the Indiana Republican primary against Richard Mourdock on May 8. But that’s not all. They are stirring up Democrats by referring to Mourdock as extreme. In what way is he extreme? He wants to eliminate the Department of Education!

Do you want to know what is really extreme? The creation of the Department of Education, after surviving almost 200 years without it. Since the DOE was created, the cost of college tuition has increased over 439% adjusted for inflation! The rate of increase is almost exactly commensurate with the rate of growth of DOE subsidization. As you can see from this chart, the government-induced housing bubble pales in comparison to the government-induced Big Education bubble.

Remember that the Department of Education began operating on May 16, 1980. Imagine how extreme the inflation in education costs would have been had the extremists thwarted the creation of the DOE back in 1980? Come to think of it, what would we have done had Dick Lugar failed to vote to create the Department of Green Energy in 1977? I guess that part was left off the mailer.

This is all economics 101 for Republicans, but I guess they feel they can say anything to an audience of Democrats, as long as they serve the purpose of reelecting an 80-year old liberal. The real irony here, as Bill Kristol points out, is that Young Guns was created to “chart a new course for the center-right movement and the House majority.” Lugar is neither new, center-right, or in the House!

The Department of Education has contributed mightily to the explosion in tuition costs. Just as the government's tampering with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac helped cause the housing crash, literally every unconstitutional endeavor in which this federal gaggle of bureaucrats has engaged has ended up in failure. Economist Richard Vedder explains:

When someone else is paying the bills, people want to buy more of the good or service in question at prevailing prices than when the customer pays the bills. This means a higher demand for higher education, and other things being equal, higher tuition costs. … Each one dollar in grant aid leads to tuition fees somewhere around 35 cents higher than would otherwise be the case. Just as third-party payments in medicine have led to escalating health care costs, so increased student financial payments have contributed to soaring tuition costs...

So getting rid of the Department of Education is not only rational, it's what I would call "a good start".

Totalitarianism (or totalitarian rule) is a political system where the state recognizes no limits to its authority and strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life wherever feasible.[2] Totalitarian regimes stay in political power through an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, which is disseminated through the state-controlled mass media, a single party that is often marked by political repression, personality cultism, control over the economy, regulation and restriction of speech, mass surveillance, and widespread use of terror.

• In an maneuver unprecedented in American history, Obama declared the Senate in recess over a long weekend to make recess appointments that could never have passed Senatorial scrutiny.

• He became the first president to violate the War Powers Act by bombing Libya and claiming NATO was in charge, not him.

• In four years, he doubled the debt issued by the United States for all previous presidents combined, which resulted in a first-ever downgrade for America's debt.

• His administration lied to a court regarding the Gulf oil drilling moratorium and was found in contempt of court.

• When a federal judge ruled Obamacare unconstitutional and issued an ordered HHS to cease implementation of the law, his administration ignored the judge and feigned ignorance of the order.

• When Congress refused to pass the wildly unpopular "DREAM Act", which would offer a form of amnesty to illegal aliens, he ordered Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to cease deportations and issue work permits for illegals instead.

• He ordered his Justice Department to sue states for requiring valid identification to vote, despite the fact that the Supreme Court had earlier ruled such laws were valid.

• His Labor Department banned Boeing from opening its $1 billion facility in a Right-To-Work state, an unprecedented act in all of American history and a tacit payoff to the unions that have funded his campaigns.

• Oh, that's just the tip of the iceberg. You can review the complete list here. Suffice it to say that Obama recognizes no Constitutional limits on his power. And, furthermore, can you imagine what this man will do if there's no reelection hanging over his head?

• "...strives to regulate every aspect of public and private life..." - the Obama regulatory regime controls all forms of energy production (and wants to regulate the air we exhale, carbon dioxide); the cars we drive; the size of toilet tanks we can install; the kind of light bulbs we can buy; the maximum legal water flow permitted in our shower heads; the kind of health insurance policies we can buy; how much money a bank can charge to issue a credit card; what kind of medical innovations may be introduced by private companies into the health care market; the water in your backyard (it may be a "wetland"); and the list goes on and on and on. In fact, no one knows how many millions of pages of laws and regulations we are expected to know under penalty of fines and imprisonment.

• "...stay in ... power through an all-encompassing propaganda campaign, ... disseminated through the state-controlled mass media..." - from NPR to The New York Times, mass media never attempts to vet Obama, his background, upbringing, or core beliefs. In "The Secret Scrapbook of Barry Soetero", I offer a tongue-in-cheek review of his rise to the presidency. But suffice it to say that no one in media delved into his relationship with Jeremiah Wright or Bill Ayers; how he paid for Columbia and Harvard; what his grades were; why his medical records were never disclosed; etc. Old media is state-controlled and the constant flow of reporters to politics and vice versa is proof that they are in lock-step, something never envisioned by this country's founders.

• "...often marked by political repression..." - when was the last time a presidential campaign named private citizens as "enemies" because of their political donations? For that is precisely what the Obama campaign has repeatedly done, demonizing those who dare offer support to his opponents:

[There has been] a multi-year effort by the ongoing Obama campaign to vilify specific donors to competing philosophical causes... In each of these instances, President Obama has relied on a vast grassroots network to coerce, bully, boycott and vilify individuals lawfully taking part in the political process, just as his own donors and supporters are freely allowed to engage.

...There is no current evidence the President has manipulated the federal machinery punitively. But the message remains clear, if you support a philosophical adversary, you will face some retribution. The media has so far given this White House tactic a pass... What name will elicit a defense of Constitutional freedoms? Must it be one of their own, as was the case under Nixon?

Shouldn’t every American be protected against the heavy hand of governmental intimidation? The President must explain his intimidation of people who have lawfully participated in the political system and have borne no electoral injustice to our nation other than participating in lawful industries the President finds objectionable and supporting organizations and campaigns the President opposes.

• "...control over the economy..." - again, I don't think we need to review nationalizing two auto companies, crushing the private student loan industry (enjoying those interest rates, kids?), effectively nationalizing much of the banking industry through onerous and prescriptive legislation, effectively nationalizing health care through the disastrous PPACA (Obamacare), and "fixing" housing while avoiding the tough problems that include Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, otherwise known as the job shops for connected Democrats. Need we review all of that?

• "...mass surveillance..." - they've not quite gotten there yet, but the Obama administration gave the go-ahead to the "CISPA Internet surveillance bill". Suffice it to say that we really don't know what kind of surveillance is occurring and it will, should this man be reelected, get much worse.

The final tenet of the totalitarian agenda is terrorism. The progressive-Communist Left can't quite pull that off yet, though I would remind you of Obama's multiple exhortations to create a "civilian national security force". Remember this golden oldie?

We cannot continue to rely only on our military in order to achieve the national security objectives that we've set. We've got to have a civilian national security force that's just as powerful, just as strong, just as well-funded.

You starting to get the picture, Sparky? Why they're constantly attacking the Second Amendment?

It's the last domino on the road to totalitarianism.

But don't believe me. Read the definition again and do the math.

I shudder to think what this country will become if this man gets reelected.

If a picture is a worth a thousand words, this infographic could be worth five million youth voters who have sadly come to the realization that the Utopian fantasies of Statist oligarchs are actually nightmares.

From high school to grad school, students across the country are preparing to get their diplomas and move into the next phase of their lives. This is always a time of hope and excitement, but there is no denying the obstacles young people face in today’s economy. Many will have to move home to save money. Many will struggle to find work. And those who can strike out on their own often won’t earn what they would have 5 years ago.

You cannot impose ObamaCare, borrow $1 trillion every year, restrict energy production, constantly threaten higher taxes, and still expect entrepreneurs and small businesses to take the same risks and hire the same numbers that they otherwise would. We need a new approach that gets the government out of the way and gives Americans – young and old – the freedom to chase their dreams.

QOTD: "Al Gore launched Current TV in 2005 and it took off like a North Korean rocket. To be honest, I didn't even know that Current TV was still on the air, but then I don't get channel 'a million'." --Jimmy Kimmel

Sunday, April 29, 2012

Just when you thought all of the corrupt uses of Stimulus money had been exposed -- from Solyndra to Tesla Motors -- comes word that even ostensibly independent organizations like the American Lung Association are suspect. It's called greed, drones. Google it.

Houston was listed as the No. 8 worst city for smog according to a new report for the American Lung Association... the association’s State of the Air 2012 report ranked the worst U.S. cities for ozone pollution, or smog.

The report found that an estimated 127,325 children suffer from pediatric asthma and 322,605 adults suffer from asthma in Houston.

...Texas is currently in a legal battle with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency concerning air pollution rules. Most recently, Texas and 14 other states challenged the legality of the EPA’s Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which imposes caps on nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants in eastern states and creates a 27-state trading program.

So the ALA says that more than 450,000 people in Houston suffer from asthma. And this is precisely the kind of report that is routinely used by the EPA to "crucify" (their words, not mine) energy companies.

Last week, we learned that millions of dollars from President Obama’s “stimulus” bill were actually used by the government to lobby itself in favor of higher taxes. Specifically, grants to state obesity prevention programs were raided for cash to lobby local governments in favor of sin taxes on love-handle products, such as sugar and soda.

...Contrary to dismissive statements made by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius, this is against the law. Sebelius asserted that it’s only illegal when federal grant money is used to lobby the federal government, but in fact, it is illegal for such funds “to be used directly or indirectly to pay for any personal service, advertisement, telegram, telephone, letter, printed or written matter, or other device, intended or designed to influence in any manner… [a] jurisdiction, or an official of any government, to favor, adopt, or oppose, by vote or otherwise, any legislation, law ratification, policy, or appropriation.”

...[For instance, t]he American Lung Association of Idaho/Nevada, Inc., received $1.4 million from a [Stimulus-funded] grant to the Southern Nevada Health District, and happily praised this “exciting initiative” for allowing them to “take on advocacy and policy work,” including “strengthening the Nevada Clean Indoor Act and a tobacco tax increase.”

Texas will take aim in a federal appeals court Friday at a controversial rule that requires aging power plants to sharply reduce emissions that cause smog and soot in neighboring states.

The latest round in the state's fight with the Environmental Protection Agency will be heard by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, often considered the nation's most influential after the Supreme Court.

In the case, industry groups and 14 states, led by Texas, are challenging the legality of the Cross-State Air Pollution Rule, which imposes caps on nitrogen oxide and sulfur dioxide from coal-fired power plants in eastern states. Texas, for one, fears some utilities will shutter plants to comply with the rule, threatening the state's ability to "keep the lights on."

The EPA says the rule is necessary to reduce lung-damaging pollution that causes thousands of premature deaths and respiratory illnesses each year around the power plants and in downwind states.

And that's the kind of data offered up by the ALA, presumably only after taxpayers are forced to contribute to its efforts. In other words, the EPA has recruited the ALA -- with your money -- to "validate" the Eco-Marxist agenda of de-industrializing America.

Is the ALA a worthy charity? Perhaps, but its alliance with the Eco-Marxists -- and its reliance on "Stimulus" grants -- makes its reports utterly suspect. In fact, the ALA's reports -- seeing as they are involuntarily funded by the taxpayers -- must be disregarded.

Yes, there really is a feature film on the way regarding the raid that killed Bin Laden. And even Politico has picked up on the crass efforts by the Obama campaign to capitalize on the raid with articles like this one: "Year after bin Laden raid, Obama launches PR blitz.

His campaign’s focus on the raid could fuel criticism that disclosing so many details about the operation will jeopardize the ability of Navy SEALs to carry out future raids... House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Peter King (R-N.Y.) complained last year that the administration was leaking details for political gain, including by cooperating with a Hollywood film originally set to hit theaters just before the election.

Carney dismissed the complaints, saying he hoped congressional critics “would have more important topics to discuss than a movie.” ... However, in December, the Pentagon’s office of inspector general announced it was launching an investigation into allegations that the filmmakers received access to classified information.

Fortunately, Biff Spackle was on the case and has pilfered borrowed an advance copy of the film's movie poster.

I know Joe Biden is spewing out the Ploufflerod-authored campaign slogan of "GM is alive... and Osama's dead."

But what the American people know is that "He killed Osama... and the Economy".

Because to say that America has an untold wealth of oil and gas -- hundreds of years worth, in fact -- is an understatement:

Our liberal rulers want to use an artificially imposed shortage of oil to inflict on us a lower standard of living in the name of their antihuman green ideology, as well as to promote government dependency by hamstringing the economy. As Barack Hussein Obama brazenly lies,

“[Y]ou and I both know that with only 2% of the world’s oil reserves, we can’t just drill our way to lower gas prices — not when we consume 20 percent of the world’s oil.”

#1 Back in 1995, the U.S. Geological Survey told the American people that the Bakken Shale formation in western North Dakota and eastern Montana only held 151 million barrels of oil. Today, government officials are admitting that it holds 4.3 billion barrels of recoverable oil, and some analysts believe that the actual number could be closer to 20 billion barrels of oil.
#2 It is estimated that there are up to 19 billion barrels of recoverable oil deposits in the tar sands of Utah.
#3 It is estimated that there are at least 86 billion barrels of recoverable oil deposits in the Outer Continental Shelf.
#4 It is believed that there are 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil deposits in the Green River formation in Wyoming.
#5 Overall, the United States is sitting on approximately 1.442 trillion barrels of recoverable oil deposits.
#6 According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 120 year supply of natural gas.
#7 According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 200 year supply of oil.
#8 According to the Institute of Energy Research, the United States has a 464 year supply of coal.
#9 According to Pastor Lindsey Williams, absolutely gigantic oil fields have been discovered up in Alaska that the American public is not being told about.
#10 Goldman Sachs is predicting that the United States will be the number one oil producing country in the world by the year 2017.

Barack Obama has already held more re-election fundraising events than all five Presidents since Richard Nixon combined, according to figures to be published in a new book... Obama is also the only president in the past 35 years to visit every electoral battleground state in his first year of office.

The figures, contained a in a new book called The Rise of the President’s Permanent Campaign by Brendan J. Doherty, due to be published by University Press of Kansas in July, give statistical backing to the notion that Obama is more preoccupied with being re-elected than any other commander-in-chief of modern times.

...Doherty, who has compiled statistics about presidential travel and fundraising going back to President Jimmy Carter in 1977, found that Obama had held 104 fundraisers by March 6th this year, compared to 94 held by Presidents Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush Snr, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush combined... Since then, Obama has held another 20 fundraisers, bringing his total to 124. Carter held four re-election fundraisers in 1980, Reagan zero in 1984, Bush Snr 19 in 1992, Clinton 14 in 1996 and Bush Jnr 57 in 2004.

...In his State of the Union speech in January, Obama bemoaned the ‘corrosive influence of money in politics’. The following month, he reversed course and announced he was allowing cabinet members and top advisors to speak at big money events for so-called super PACs – unaccountable outside groups raising money for his re-election.

During the 2008 election, Obama abandoned a pledge to opt for public funding of his campaign, instead opting to raise an unlimited amount privately. He then raised and spent approximately $730million, almost double the campaign funds of Senator John McCain, his Republican opponent...

...This week, the Republican National Committee (RNC) lodged a formal complaint with the Government Accountability Office (GAO) about alleged misuse of taxpayer money by Obama.

QOTD: "The Arab Spring is an unshackling of Islam, not an outbreak of fervor for freedom in the Western sense. Turkey’s third-term prime minister Recep Erdogan, a staunch Brotherhood ally who rejects the notion that there is a “moderate Islam” (“Islam is Islam, and that’s it,” he says), once declared that “democracy is a train where you can get off when you reach your destination.” The destination for Muslim supremacists is the implementation of sharia — the foundation of any Islamized society, and, eventually, of the reestablished caliphate." --Andrew C. McCarthy

Saturday, April 28, 2012

Forty percent of New York City government vehicles are hybrids or run on alternative fuels. The New York Police Department is exempt from the aggressive environmental vehicle procurement requirements of other city agencies and yet, they have at least one marked patrol car labeled for traffic enforcement.

As a commenter notes, this will be for meter maids and intersection control, not armed police officers.

The Advance Estimate for Q1 GDP came in at 2.2%, down from 3.0% in the previous quarter, and below most mainstream media estimates of 2.5%.

The GDP deflator is reported to have averaged 1.2% annualized in the past 2 qtrs. Had the trend rate from '11 persisted, the deflator would have subtracted 2.6% annualized from real GDP, resulting in a 2-qtr. growth of real GDP of 0%.

...Once again the BEA has used "deflaters" that will strain the credibility of the public, especially if they buy gasoline. To correct the "nominal" data into "real" numbers the BEA assumed that the annualized inflation rate during 1Q-2012 was 1.54%. As a reminder, lower "deflaters" cause the reported "real" growth rates to increase -- and once again very low seasonally adjusted BEA inflation "deflaters" have been the headline number's best friend. If the raw "nominal" numbers were instead "deflated" by using the seasonally corrected CPI-U calculated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) for the same time period, nearly the entire headline growth rate vanishes -- and the resulting growth rate would have been a minuscule 0.08% with "real final sales" contracting.

And real per capita disposable income actually shrank during the quarter shrank at an annualized -0.27% rate (from $32,699 per capita to $32,677 per capita) -- and it remains lower than it was 5 quarters ago. -- even using the BEA's optimistic "deflaters." Real-world households likely felt the pinch even more.

...Doug Short at Advisor Perspectives has some interesting charts in his post GDP Q1 Advance Estimate Disappoints at 2.2%... [The accompanying] chart shows the disturbing trends...

Three years into a recovery, growth (if you believe preposterous deflators) is a mere 2.2% but only 0% if you don't. Moreover, with parts of Europe in an outright depression, with even Germany and the UK in recession, and with China slowing significantly, the odds the US economy decouples for too much longer is now approaching zero.

Given the proclivity of the Obama administration to dispense propaganda, rest assured that the numbers it announces will be utterly disconnected from reality. And Pravda media will lap it up and regurgitate what ever they're told.

One good thing about the Obama economy? It will hasten the demise of the Statist media.

We Americans don't want a "cool" president. We want a competent one. One who believes in individual sovereignty, personal liberty, free enterprise, a growing and productive private sector, the Declaration and the Constitution. We want a competent president who respects America's laws, its founding, morals and traditions.

And Barack Obama has proven himself, over and over again, to be woefully lacking in each and every one of these areas.

QOTD: "He's targeted insurers, oil firms and Wall Street—letting it be known that those who oppose his policies might face political or legislative retribution. He lectured the Supreme Court for giving companies more free speech and (falsely) accused the Chamber of Commerce of using foreign money to bankroll U.S. elections. The White House even ginned up an executive order (yet to be released) to require companies to list political donations as a condition of bidding for government contracts. Companies could bid but lose out for donating to Republicans. Or they could quit donating to the GOP—Mr. Obama's real aim.

The White House has couched its attacks in the language of "disclosure" and the argument that corporations should not have the same speech rights as individuals. But now, says Rory Cooper of the Heritage Foundation, "he's doing the same at the individual level, for anyone who opposes his policies." Any giver, at any level, risks reprisal from the president of the United States." --Kimberly Strassel

I spotted this chart (courtesy Larwyn, of course) at The Jacksonian Party. It explains a great deal about our current situation; one in which the people find themselves pitted against their elected officials.

Prior to 1902, Congress had never reached a 70% reelection rate.

Jacksonian argues that when the Senate became a directly elected body and no longer represented Statehouses, taxation and other federal usurpations of Constitutional bounds became rife. In other words, the federal government could and did use its power to begin punishing the states, regulating local affairs and interfering in every sort of arcane transaction.

That change triggered an ever-increasing federal budget that went far beyond national defense. Budget-busting initiatives, politically motivated in nature, purported to help retirees, the sick, the elderly and so on, while concentrating ever more power in Washington.

The federal government now consists of a body of lifetime bureaucrats, many of whom couldn't power a flashlight with all of their brainpower combined, who are reelected automatically through their use of federal tax funds. They reward, they punish, they anoint.

And they continue to aggregate more power at the federal level -- and to build their own personal wealth -- ignoring and flouting the law. Rangel, Feinstein, Frank, Reid, Waters, Conyers -- to name but a few -- have repeatedly thumbed their noses at financial disclosures, ethics violations, criminal complaints, FOIA requests, and the like.

If government worked as Obama and the National Socialist Democrats say it will, then why would we care about separation of powers? Why would we care about different levels of government?

Why would we care about the Constitution?

Why was this nation founded in the first place?

If government is so beneficent, so effective, so humane and compassionate, how is it that throughout all of human history, the great philosophers and thinkers were so fearful of it?

Were they all wrong about limiting, balancing, placing checks on government? Were they all wrong about liberty?

Is human history all wrong and Obama right?

Is human history all wrong and Nancy Pelosi right?

Is human history all wrong and Harry Reid right?

Do you really think Obama, Pelosi and Reid hold a candle to the greatest thinkers civilization has ever seen?

Because for Obama to be right; and for his party, now in the hands of the radical left, to be right; the Founders had to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, the Declaration of Independence has to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, the Constitution has to be wrong.

For Obama to be right, Aristotle, Cicero, Locke, Montesquieu, Burke, Smith and the founding fathers all had to be wrong.

And so it is clear how all of this will end.

Government-run health care will be used as a tool by government officials. As these programs always are. It will be used to punish political enemies, to reward friends, to entice supporters and -- always -- to aggregate more power.